Tag Archives: infighting

The White House has mostly kept its internal turmoil under wraps in recent weeks but the lid is starting to come off the pressure cooker that is boiling at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

President Barack Hussein Obama faces a rocky future, which appears to be set in stone.

It is another sign that Obama has lost control not only of the public narrative but that of his inner circle as well. It is common for senior political appointees at the White House to stay for at least until the end of the president’s first term in office. There is usually a natural turnover at the end of the first term. Old hands fade back into the woodwork and new blood is brought in to kick-start the administration’s second term. However that is not the case in the Obama Administration. Indicative of a sinking ship, the rats are fleeing the ship as fast as the can – some voluntarily and others not so willingly. The mass exodus is well underway as evidenced by the following:

Larry Summers, the Director of the National Economic Council has announced his resignation, which will take effect following the midterm elections.

Christina Romer, who was Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors resigned back in September of 2010.

Retired Admiral Dennis Blain, the former Director of National Intelligence, resigned in May 2010.

Peter Orszag resigned in June, 2010. He was the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). It is likely he felt pressure early on as he learned that the Democrats in Congress had no intention of even passing a budget for the current fiscal year.

Greg Craig, the White House Counsel, was forced to resign nearly a year ago, in November of 2009.

David Ogden, Deputy Attorney General, resigned in February, 2010.

Mark Lippert, a Deputy National Security Advisor, left the White House in October 2009. A member of the United States Navy Reserve, he chose to move to Active Duty status. This is a telling move because Lippert was particularly close to President Barack Obama as evidenced by the fact that he was a regular pick-up basketball player with Obama during the course of his presidential campaign.

Ellen Moran, White House Communications Director, left in April 2009. She started it all off in the resignations game since she lasted barely three months on the job.

Retired General James Jones, the National Security Advisor, resigned on October 8, 2010. There is ample evidence that he was forced out of his position.

Rahm Emanual, Chief of Staff. Emanual held the most powerful position in the White House, but it wasn’t enough to save him. There is evidence that he was forced out by Michelle Obama and Valerie Jarrett.

David Axelrod has announced that he will leave the White House early in 2011, ostensibly to return to Chicago and work on Obama’s re-election campaign.

Robert Gibbs – White House Press Secretary may very well be on the short list. There are rumors circulating within the Washington D.C. elite circles that Gibbs has been told to look for another job.

The Wayne Madsen Report, (WMR) a political operation in the spirit of the legendary Jack Anderson’s Merry-Go-Round, reported two months ago that Obama is under extreme pressure from many heavy-hitting Democratic financial donors, to change his economic policies or else they will withhold future funding in the next presidential election – choosing instead to back a different candidate – presumably Hillary Clinton.

“Informed sources in Washington, DC have told WMR that President Obama has been personally told by a delegation of top Democratic Party financiers that unless he radically changes his economic policies they will bolt from him for another Democratic candidate in 2012. The Democratic money moguls conveyed the warning to Obama in Martha’s Vineyard, where the president and his family are spending their vacation. There are various factions within the Democratic Party that see different scenarios to bail out what many Democrats see as an administration in deep trouble with the electorate. One would have Secretary of State Hillary Clinton move up to replace Vice President Joe Biden on the 2012 ticket with Senator John Kerry becoming Secretary of State. However, WMR has been told that Clinton personally loathes Obama and his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and may not want to be part of the 2012 president ticket playing second fiddle to Obama. WMR has also learned that Obama’s reported ‘severe narcissism’ has a number of his cabinet officials and top Democratic fundraisers perplexed. Obama’s refusal to change course because of his ego was discussed at the recent annual Bohemian Grove conclave in northern California, which brings together influential businessmen and politicians from both parties. Top U.S. business leaders openly complained about Obama’s economic policies, with some stating that Obama is, for the business community, the worst president in anyone’s lifetime. They also complained about White House gatekeepers like Emanuel and policy advisers Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod who are preventing access to the Oval Office.” – Wayne Madsen Report

This development has got to be exerting great pressure on Obama since he is a fanatical ideologue in terms of the economy – religiously adhering to Keynesian economic theory that decrees economic growth comes only through increased spending. It appears that these large Democratic financiers, though also ideologically to the left, are also pragmatic businessmen. It could be that they clearly see the effect that Obama’s economic policies are having on (1) their own bottom line, and (2) the public’s reaction to Obama’s destructive policies, which is going to manifest itself on November 2 in the midterm elections. If predictions of the Tea Party’s tsunami come true, the power of the behind-the-scenes Democratic financiers could be severely curtailed.

WMR is also reporting that Obama has chosen to ignore the demands of the aforementioned financiers who represent the leftist money machine. That is why we see Obama stubbornly pressing full ahead with his redistributive agenda, including both proposed legislation and anticipated Executive Orders which will further damage the economy. Obama has even let it be known to the Republicans that if they take one or even both chambers of Congress that they, the GOP, will be forced to deal with him. Obama blithely ignores the fact that the GOP will be perfectly happy to play a stalling game – preventing any more of Obama’s Marxist agenda to be passed through Congress while simultaneously preparing Obama’s downfall in the 2012 elections. The Republicans are perfectly aware that Obama would veto any legislation they attempt to pass that would curtail or repeal his signature achievements. Therefore, they are already planning a repeat of the midterms of 2010 in 2012. Due to the nature of the Senate, with only 1/3 of the senators up for election in any given election cycle, the Republicans are already calculating that it will take at least two election cycles to fully regain control. Furthermore, the Republications are calculating that the public also realizes this fact. Therefore, they are expected to trumpet their firewall against any further Obama legislation, willing to endure the darts and arrows from the mainstream media who will surely label them as obstructionists.

Speaking of the media, the Obama White House, according to WMR, is seeking revenge for media criticism.

WMR has also learned that rather than change course, the White House staff, who is keenly reading anything that is critical of the president, are more interested in exacting revenge for criticism than in changing course. ‘The White House staff are voracious readers who are obsessed with favorable coverage,’ one source said. – WMR

If that be the case, the White House public relations flacks, led by Axelrod, must be up in arms over the recent firing of Juan Williams from National Public Radio (NPR).

Juan Williams

Convinced that they did the right thing to muzzle Williams, who is also a liberal, the executives of NPR and their bosses in the White House, have got to be beside themselves with the news that Williams has just signed a contract with Fox News. In effect, the White House flacks have done nothing but shoot themselves in the foot – having given Williams a much bigger platform from which to criticize the Obama Administration. This will have the effect of furthering the political infighting within the White House as the buck gets passed, people run for cover, and Obama is left, once again, with trying to find a scapegoat.

With the swift removal of Emanual, the Crisis Management team in the White House, i.e., Obama’s inner circle, now consists of Michelle Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Axelrod (though his influence is on the wane), and Vice President Joe Biden’s circle of Thomas E. Donilon (the incoming National Security Advisor) and Peter M. Rouse, the interim White House Chief of Staff. But given the news report from WMR that Obama now considers Biden to be a rival, this inner circle, with members already divided into two camps: (1) The Obama Camp – Michelle Obama, Valerie Jarrett and Axelrod, and (2) The Biden Camp – Biden, Rouse, and Donilon – is already set up for some viscous infighting.

And then there’s the Joker in this political house of Cards. Hillary Clinton is patiently sitting on the sidelines, enjoying the destruction of the man who denied her the presidency.

She is dangling the possibility that she might oppose Obama in the 2012 Democratic primaries. And she is well-positioned to do just that. She would be the beneficiary of those redirected campaign funds that have been threatened to be removed from Obama’s stash of cash. She has remained virtually silent on Obama’s major agenda items – leaving her open to fashion popular campaign planks once the chips fall on November 2nd. It very well could be that once the midterms are history Hillary Clinton will consider all of the chips to have fallen and thus Obama’s buffalo to be empty. If Hillary Clinton is going to make another run at the presidency, she is going to have to make her move early next year. So she has from November 3, 2010 (when the results of the midterms are known) until about the February to April of 2011 timeframe to make the announcement. Expect Hillary Clinton to continue to torment Obama with the uncertainty of her intentions. Obama, it has been reported, attempted to short-circuit any such primary challenge by Hillary Clinton by offering to dump Biden and ask her to join him on his 2012 ticket as the Vice Presidential candidate. Reportedly, Hillary Clinton has already declined that invitation. This move on the part of Clinton will have to be tormenting Obama because it is a pretty good sign that Hillary intends to oppose him in the Democratic primaries of 2012. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Joe Biden has got to be feeling rather bitter since Obama chose to throw him under the bus in favor of Hillary Clinton.

In an attempt to deal with increasing concerns over a possible Hillary Clinton run for President in 2012, the Obama White House has quietly made overtures to Clinton to replace Joe Biden as Obama’s Vice President:

There has been speculation of just such a deal for some time now. The speculation has proved to be accurate. The Obama White House is very concerned with the possibility of Hillary Clinton seeking the nomination in 2012. Very-very concerned, and for good reason. Democratic Party supporters – I’m talking some very deep pockets and very considerable influence, have been engaging in some speculative chatter of that nature for a while. When that happens, it’s a warning shot at the White House that says to them you better get things back on track or we are going to try and replace you. And Hillary Clinton has done nothing to diminish that chatter. The opposite in fact. She is considering the possibility herself. – Newsflavor.com

In typical Clinton fashion, Hillary outmaneuvered Obama on this issue. The combination of Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton is an extremely powerful combination in liberal political circles. It appears that the Clintons have determined not to tie themselves closer to what they perceive as damaged goods. Hillary has somewhat of an albatross around her neck since she is the Secretary of State in Obama’s Administration. But she has done a very good job of distancing herself from Obama simply through her inaction and her silence.

“After the November election, the Left won’t be able to remain in denial. They will start exploring alternatives to Obama in 2012. Obama’s smartest move would be to try to create a real alliance with Hilary Clinton. But as even Woodward has admitted, Obama and Clinton are not on the same page, and she is not one of his trusted advisers. So this would be a move of pure political expediency. And probably not enough to save an administration that the vast majority of Americans now see as incompetent and extremist.” – felixw

All of these factors are intertwined into the maelstrom that is the Obama White House. Alliances are being sought; supposed friends are being stabbed in the back (i.e., Biden vs. Obama); and lone wolves are circling Obama, looking for a weakness and an opportunity to strike. And there are plenty of lone wolves. One of them is Nancy Pelosi. Rumor has it that White House staffers asked Pelosi, to her face, to keep quiet until after the midterm elections were over. She was apparently told that she was a political liability. Pelosi apparently complied for a matter of weeks since she generally disappeared from view. But recently, with it becoming increasingly apparent that she would face a fight for the Speakership on the House floor in the event the Democrats retained control of the House, Pelosi has become vocal once again. Pelosi is in a battle for her own political survival and apparently she considers Obama to be a liability – just as he apparently considers her to be the same. It has been said that there is no honor among thieves – and Pelosi vs. Obama vs. Biden vs. Clinton, vs. Axelrod vs. Jarrett, vs. Michelle Obama is evidence that this contention could very well be true. The infighting is growing. It is spilling out into public view. Hangers-on are being pressured to take sides – which makes for a perilous choice for assorted low-ranking Democratic members of the House, political consultants, and members of the professional left.

Pelosi has indeed become a political liability for the Democrats, as evidenced by the liberal Guardian newspaper story out of Great Britain earlier this week:

“Republicans have put Pelosi front and centre of their campaign, trying to turn her into a rallying cry and a hate figure. Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, is on a “Fire Pelosi Bus” that is touring the country from coast to coast. Pelosi has been used in Republicans attack adverts in an incredible 47 different congressional seats, most of them many miles away from San Francisco. She has been portrayed as extreme, out-of-touch and elitist; a sort of uncaring liberal ogre forcing unwanted legislation down the throats of ordinary Americans. “She is the featured devil this year,” said Republican pollster and political consultant Adam Probolsky “She is solid in her hometown, but outside of that it is a very different picture.”

“That is Pelosi’s problem in a nutshell. Her home district voted 85 per cent for Barack Obama in 2008. Pelosi herself romped home in her last election with 72 per cent of the vote. But that will not matter if the Democrats lose the House. She will be ousted as Speaker, after being hailed only four years ago as the most powerful woman in American politics. If that happens, it will be a spectacularly swift fall from political grace. “Her career will be over. At that point she will have no political future,” said Jack Pitney, a politics professor at Claremont McKenna College in Los Angeles.” – Paul Harris

So Pelosi has no choice but to return to the stump. It is do or die for Pelosi. But Pelosi is between a rock and a hard place.

Pelosi and friends - all dressed up and nowhere to go.

Told by Obama to shut up, she has ignored his command and is pressing forward, regardless. So even if she wins her fight to retain the Speakership of the House of Representatives, she has strained, if not outright broken her relationship with Obama and his cohorts within the White House.

The Democrats are also kind of like a football team. Less than two years ago the Democrats won the political Super Bowl. They reigned supreme over the universe. Winning does that to a team. But so does losing. Now the Democrats can’t get a first down. Coaches are being fired. Players are on the chopping block. Everyone is looking for a scapegoat. The fans are depressed. Advertising revenue is way down. The momentum is with the other team. Dissension is destroying the team from within itself.

The game is almost over, White House Democrats. The rats are abandoning the ship.

Tea minus 11 and counting.

T-minus 11 Days and counting until the Tea Party takes off in the 2010 midterm elections and a mission of rediscovery, going where no liberal has ever gone before - back to sanity.